EIGHTEEN
“We’re experiencing a near total system failure,” Berensen explained as Ivanova arrived on the bridge. There was an acrid smell in the air and the readouts on the console screens were flickering on and off.
“Still nothing to do with me,” Breck said as he raced to the communications station.
“Engineering has managed to get the Gravitic drive system back on line and life support is still operating at near enough to one hundred percent, but the engines are inoperable at present,” Graydon announced. “All weapons systems are also down.”
“With the power fluctuations that’s not a bad thing,”
Berensen observed.
“An overload in the particle beam cannons is certainly not what we want right now,” Ivanova said. “Did we register any spikes or surges prior to the systems going out?”
“No warnings of any kind, Captain,” Graydon said.
“The lights dimmed and then everything went out,” Berensen confirmed.
“So, we’re dead in the water,” Ivanova said, “but still alive.”
“That’s about it,” Berensen agreed.
“Any reported injuries?”
“Gravity wasn’t off long enough before the system kicked back in to produce any serious casualties.”
Ivanova looked relieved at the news. She approached the flickering schematic of the Titans with Berensen keeping in step beside her.
“Have MedLab dispatch staff to key installations, ready to treat any injuries immediately. Once they are in place, seal off every section of the ship.”
As Berensen turned to carry out her instructions, Ivanova returned to her chair. She winced, feeling like pins had been stabbed into her forehead.
“Put me through the Engineering,” she told Breck.
“Aye, Captain.”
“Chief, how are you doing back there?” Ivanova asked.
“I don’t know what game she’s playing, but we should have the grid back up and running in less than thirty minutes,”
Sheehan said.
Ivanova nodded as the screens around her suddenly went blank. Through the rising static that filled the speakers it was just possible to hear him amend the time to an hour.
“What if that had happened while we were in hyperspace?”
Ivanova asked. She clutched the mug of coffee in her hands for warmth and looked at the faces around the table. Everyone was cold but she could feel it deep in her bones. Everyone knew how challenging it was to navigate through hyperspace, which was why ships needed the beacon system and Jump Gate transfer points. It was not somewhere to go wandering about in. If the Titans lost power and drifted off the wire, it was more than likely that they would be lost forever.
“We ran system-wide diagnostics twice,” Sheehan said. “So far we cannot find anything to suggest what triggered the fault.”
“So it’s conceivable that it could happen again?”
“Anything’s possible,” Sheehan told her. “Components breaking down I can fix. But we’ve been collecting data on temperature fluctuations and problems with the lighting that nobody in my department can explain.”
His admission made Ivanova sit up and take notice.
“Where have these occurrences been taking place?” she asked.
“The instance in Engineering you saw. After that the phenomena appear to be spread at random in localized areas across the ship.”
“Are you trying to suggest that the ship is haunted?”
Graydon enquired which provoked laughter from some of the officers seated around the table.
“That is not what I’m trying to suggest,” Sheehan replied, annoyed at the remark and the reaction it provoked. He was relieved to see that Ivanova was not finding it funny either.
“This isn’t just a case of someone accidentally wiring the systems incorrectly. Earth Force technology I can deal with. This is something else altogether.”
“Alien technology?” Ivanova asked, eager to hear what he had to say.
Sheehan looked over to Berensen before he replied. Ivanova noticed that some of the other officers, shifting uneasily in their seats, exchanged glances. It was like they shared secret and were wondering who would divulge it.
“When the Titans was berthed at Cyrus Shipyard, operatives from EarthForce came aboard to finish the installation of the central processor,” Sheehan admitted.
“All other work stopped and the crew were shuttled off,”
Graydon added. “Even Commander Sunetra was at a loss to tell us what was going on.”
“And was this something they did to every ship or just this one?” Ivanova asked.
“It could have been just this one, it could have been all four,” Berensen answered for her.
“There was talk that they had come from a research facility orbiting Uranus,” Maddison said.
“And what does that mean?” she asked.
Nobody said it but Ivanova was sure they must have had an inkling that the men who had taken over the Titans belonged to Earth Alliance’s Black Projects Division. The thought made her shudder. If that was the case it could only mean that the ship was hardwired with Shadowtech.
If she mentioned the name now, Ivanova expected to be met with a lot of blank faces around the table. It was ironic that amongst most of EarthForce, Babylon 5 was infamous for seceding from the Earth Alliance and then taking the fight back home as Clark’s presidency turned into a reign of terror. Very few humans knew about their involvement in deciding the outcome in the Shadow War, which raged across the galaxy.
“So what do we do?” Graydon asked. “Return to Cyrus Shipyard and say, sorry it doesn’t work. That would be a kick in the teeth for morale.”
“We could try Proxima,” Maddison suggested. Already Berensen was shaking his head.
“I doubt they have the facilities to deal with his. And if they did, word would still get back,” Berensen said.
“So where do you suggest is the best place we go to deal with this?” Ivanova asked him.
Berensen looked over at the star charts on the screen.
“The only place we can go to have this dealt with without making too big an issue is Epsilon Eridani,” he said.
It was certainly not the answer Ivanova was expecting and she was taken completely by surprise.
“Babylon 5?”
With the engines back on line the Titans punched a hole into hyperspace. From the Sinzar System, the journey to Epsilon Eridani would not take long, but there was still the very real danger that the ship could lose power again. In the event of another systems wide failure the Titans would drift off the beacons. It was a risk they would have to take. Although nobody expressed any doubts outright, Ivanova could feel the tension in the air.
Before they jumped from normal space, Ivanova had already formulated a plan of action if they ran into any problems.
“Worst-case scenario, we employ a variation of the tactic used to rescue the Cortez,” she explained to Berensen and Graydon in the briefing room.
One of Earth Alliance’s mighty Explorer-class vessels, the Cortez had spent five years out on the Rim, mapping unexplored regions of space and constructing new Jump Gates for the survey teams that would follow. After stopping off at Babylon 5 to resupply, the ship had lost its navigational systems and begun to drift off the hyperspace beacon system.
Ivanova moved the folders from the table and collected the mugs that had not been cleared away.
“Hyperspace,” she said pointing to the table. She piled the folders together and set them down on the far end of the table.
“This is the Titans.”
She gave it a slight nudge.
“Without any power, it’ll take a while before we drift off the beacon. But since nobody knows we’re here, nobody is going to come looking for us. So this is the plan.”
She set the cluster of mugs down in front of the files.
“The forty-eight Starfuries leave the Titans,” Ivanova explained.
She selected a mug and pushed it away from the files.
“The first fighter will advance one thousand kilometres toward the Epsilon Eridani Jump Gate and hold position.”
She picked up a second mug and slid it past the first one.
“The second fighter will advance a further one thousand kilometers from the first. The third fighter, another one thousand kilometers, and so on,” she said as the mugs were slid along the table eventually forming a line.
“Creating a lifeline,” Berensen observed.
“Exactly,” Ivanova said as she held up the mug furthest from the files. “With the final Starfury racing ahead to Babylon 5 to bring help.”
“That is just beyond insane, if you don’t mind me saying,”
Graydon replied.
“That may be,” Ivanova said, “but its been tried and tested.”
“Then we’ll go with it,” Graydon agreed, “but its still beyond insane.”
“Then let’s hope we don’t have to put it into practice,”
Berensen said.
With only a few hours before they reached Babylon 5, Ivanova returned to the briefing room along with the key members of her crew.
“In a little while we should find out what’s causing the malfunctions aboard the ship,” Ivanova told them as they sat around the table. “But before that happens, for you to understand the potentially lethal danger we are in, I need to tell you about the Shadows.”
“Shadows?” Dorland said. His puzzled expression, mirrored in the faces around him, only confirmed to Ivanova that none of them knew what she was talking about.
“They have a name, but its one that we couldn’t hope to pronounce. So for eons they’ve simply been known as Shadows. Anyway, this is what I know, although there are others who can tell the story better than me,” Ivanova said.
“The Shadows were one of the ancient races, even older than the Vorlons some say. Like the Vorlons, they wanted to help in the evolution of the younger races that followed, but through chaos and war rather than order and discipline.
“For a long time the two races co-existed, despite their diametrically opposed philosophies. But over the course of time they forgot the true nature of their mission and turned it into a fight for dominance and power.
“Every thousand years their philosophical differences boiled over into a war that engulfed the whole galaxy. The last time this occurred the Vorlons sided with the Minbari and the Shadows were eventually forced to retreat to their home world of Z’Ha’Dum. The Shadows had allied themselves with some of the younger races, inciting them to war or simply using their worlds for strategic military bases.
“Sometime in the distant past, Mars was used by the Shadows as a base of operations. Less than ten years ago, in 2253, an Interplanetary Expeditions mission discovered it, one hundred metres below the surface of Syria Planum. What they uncovered beneath the Martian soil was a dormant Shadow vessel. Almost a week later, a second Shadow ship appeared and cut it loose. IPX
had planted a homing beacon on the ship. Although they lost contact when the ships jumped into hyperspace, the company sent out long-range probes to try and pick up the beacon’s signal. Eventually they found it and traced it back to the source. A research vessel called Icarus was dispatched. There they awoke a terrible evil.”
“What happened to them, to the crew?” Maddison asked.
“They were either killed or merged with Shadow vessels to function as their central processing units, which was as good as being dead.”
“What do these Shadows look like?” Graydon asked, looking ill at ease.
“Your worst nightmares come to life. I heard one of Babylon 5’s Starfury pilots described them as big as death and twice as ugly after he encountered them.
“Where are they now, these Shadows?” Berensen asked.
“Gone now, far beyond the rim,” Ivanova assured her.
“Although it’s clear that their terrible legacy still remains.
“So you’re saying they’re to blame for what happened back on Earth?”
“I don’t know all the facts, but its possible, yes.”
“And there are people on Babylon 5 who can deal with this?”
Graydon asked.
“If it is Shadow technology, yes,” Ivanova confirmed.
“You’re saying now that it might not be?”
“I’m saying that it’s more than likely. It would certainly explain Vathek’s behaviour. Having been allied to Vorlon technology in the past, I have to admit that I’ve found aspects of this ship quite unsettling.”
“But what if we discover this is something else all together?”
“Then we find another way to deal with it,” Berensen stated firmly.
“There’s one final thing to consider,” Ivanova said as the officers got up to leave. “EarthForce employing Shadow technology is something the other races obviously don’t know about. We’ve just been invited into this new Interstellar Alliance, and the other races, in particular the Minbari, the Narn and Centauri would be less than impressed to know that the Earth Alliance was using their ancient enemies technology. Some of them may hold us in great stead for what we’ve done, especially since Sheridan’s plan of action in the Shadow War brought many of the alien races together like never before. But I can guarantee that if this gets out, Earth will be cut off and left isolated and alone. I know this is a heavy burden to put on you, but not a word of this must get out.”
“You want us to keep this from the crew?” Graydon asked.
“No,” replied Ivanova, “I’m just saying we don’t tell them about it. Or anyone else.”
BABYLON 5